Despite the results, the new floor of the Alpine has “outperformed”
While Alpine had made improvements in Baku, the result of the weekend was more than disappointing for the French team. Nevertheless, Alpine wants to see the positive side.
Dreams quickly turned into nightmares for Alpine during this weekend in Azerbaijan. Coming with improvements, the French team’s cars were expected to have a good pace on the streets of Baku. But reliability issues and accidents quickly put the French team on the back foot.
The light in the storm
But Alan Permane, the sporting director of the team, wants to focus on the positive aspects of this weekend. Alpine had introduced a new floor for both cars. And according to the engineer’s statements, it has been a source of satisfaction for the team: “Luckily, the new floor worked. It performed very well. One could even say that it exceeded expectations. We did not anticipate such performances,” shared the sporting director.
An enhanced satisfaction because this improvement was only the beginning of a series. Alpine will bring modifications in the upcoming race weekends, which will help improve their pace, something the car greatly needs: “We will bring an upgrade in Miami as well as in Imola. There will be more, but I am not able to say when,” stated Alan Permane. “These improvements will allow us to gain a tenth in Miami, and another tenth in Italy,” he continued.
A long season still
For the sports director, Alpine is in a good momentum. By bringing these developments, the French team will be able to catch up and, in the long run, be able to compete with Aston Martin and aim for the top 4. We are on a good path and we will continue on it. We can afford to bring developments that perform without having to test them beforehand, claimed Alan Permane. This is a strategy that has already been adopted in the past and has borne fruit: We have confidence in our improvements. Last year, we proceeded like this. […] We have shown that we can develop better than most teams, if not all, declared the sports director, confident about the future of the team.
After these difficult first races, where only eight points were scored in four races, Alpine is therefore looking ahead to the upcoming deadlines: « The season is still long. There are still 19 races to go, which is very, very long. We have not been spared by bad luck. We still aim for fourth place. » The French team still believes in their goal of fourth place, despite Aston Martin’s very good form.
